This blog is a result of the heavy censoring of the media by the military dictatorship regime.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

FNPF 'fiasco' shows new system was rushed

Attar Singh

Critics say fears the regime rushed the overhaul of the Fiji National Provident Fund have been proven with the fiasco over pensioners not getting the first payment as promised.

Mahendra Chaudh

There was wide protest last year when FNPF announced it was making reforms to the pension scheme under a new decree, but the changes went ahead on March 1 despite submissions saying the plan was flawed.

Mick Beddoes

The Fiji Islands Council of Trade Unions says the whole process was not only rushed and forced on people but the decree also prevents anyone from challenging the amendments.

FICTU general secretary Attar Singh has reiterated his concerns also about the Essential National (Employment) decree, which the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group also highlighted last month.

"Under the ENI decree, disputes cannot be taken to Mediation unit or the Employment tribunal. Several disputes pending before the Employment tribunal have been terminated without settlement," says Singh.

"Only disputes over 5 million can be reported - and only then to the Prime Minister not to the Employment tribunal. How can such denial of justice be acceptable in today's modern employment environment?"

The Fiji Labour Party has also denounced the delays to pension payment saying FNPF rushed into the new aged based scheme without thought or expertise.

"It should have known that handling some 12,000 pension re-registration and payments would be a mammoth task. Even then it just gave itself one month after the cut-off date to handle all the paperwork."

There has been no official statement on the FNPF website or any comment from the illegal government in the past two days about the delay in payments and whether everyone has been paid with media reports continuing to show conflicting information.

FNPF CEO Aisake Taito has told regional media all pensioners who have been validated for the new scheme were paid Tuesday morning and that only those with problematic files were outstanding.

Fiji One last night also said the queues had quietened and showed pictures of a FNPF office that was largely empty. It remains unclear, thouhg, whether the lack of queues means people have got their money or whether they've stayed away as they were told to.

Word on the ground suggests there is fear the FNPF account has no money. The Opposition MP, Mick Beddoes, is asking what has happened to the $650 million plus sitting in unclaimed members fund.

Beddoes says if the money is still in the account and there is a cashlow problem, it should be used to pay pensioners. He says the money should not in any event be used for anything but FNPF payments.

The $650million sitting unclaimed in FNPF part of it belongs to me and i'm coming home to claim it and give it to my Fiji relatives?Hey how about Chodo, since he's been caught stealing maybe he really shouldn't be given anything?Also Urai&Felix money should be confisicated and pay them out to union membership? Should really ask Mr Khaiyum to make up another Decree for that?

People of Fiji, I hate to have to break the news to you, but your man BAINIMARAMA has absconded with your money and fled the country. You see, we've been tracking the movements of subject BAINIMARAMA for an awful long time. His real name is Joe BONANNO of the Bonanno Crime Family. He has previous convictions on three counts racketeering, two counts criminal conspiracy, and one count each shoplifting and indecent exposure. Distinguishable marks include a gummy smile and a tattoo on his left buttock with the word "Driti." He was last seen in the company of a bunco artist from Nigeria named Larry SAID-GAYUMI, aka Aiyaz SAYED-KHAIYUM, aka "Puff Mommy." Please report any information regarding these individuals to law enforcement authorities.

Mick, I'll answer your question. That $650 million has been used by Voceke for development bribes, servicing the Chinese loans, purchasing arms for the army, paying consultants that Fiji dont need, and paying himself and his entourage on holidays overseas disguised as official trips.So there you go Mick.

If the fund collapses, members only have one avenue for redress which is to sue government as guarantor of the funds. But with the Administrative decree, government cannot be taken to court. What happens then.

Attar Singh is the only true leader left in fiji. All others have been shamed in one way or another. Workers man to next parliament under any voting system. Chaudhry, Mick, Anthony, qarase all finish. Only fooling people.

TO ADD SALT TO THE WOUND...THIS BLOODY ILLEGAL REGIME HAS APPOINTED PENI MOORE ( NO NEED FOR INTRODUCTION - PRISONER MOLESTOR/MANIPULATOR AND PARTIME WIFE TO MANY OF THEM) TO BE ONE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE ETC.

THIS SHOWS THE LEVEL OF PEOPLE THIS ILLEGAL REGIME WANTS TO ENGAGE TO MAKE FIJIS PARAMOUNT LAW FOR ITS PEOPLE. WHO DOES SHE REPRESENT....NOBODY.

COME ON ILLEGAL REGIME - IS THIS BEST BEST WE HAVE. ITS A SHAME ON YOU AIYAZ AND FRANK.-Comment 4.5Edited: C April 25, 2012 4:05 PM

DO YOU HAVE CHILDREN AISAKE TAITO? CERTAINLY FROM YOUR LEGAL FIRST AND BETTER HALF AND YOU ARE BUILDING THE TAITO TEAM WITH YOUR CHIEF'S DAUGHTER APART FROM THOSE OTHERS ON THE SIDE.

I AM WORRIED FOR YOUR CHILDREN TAITO...THE SINS AND CURSES OF THE FATHER!!! OB; DO THE RIGHT THING AND DO THINGS RIGHT B4 THE CURSES OF THE LAND, THE VANUA, THE CHIEFS, THE WITCHCRAFT MEN AND SO ON COME HUNTING YOU LIKE IRON TOWARDS MAGNET.

YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN LYING TO THE WORLD...WE MIND VERY MUCH YOUR LYING, YOUR BLOODY-MINDEDNESS ABOUT IT, YOUR HIGHHANDEDNESS AND ARROGANCE.

How can you take out your funds from FNPF when there's no money in the kitty? Like one blogger said, Voceke will return from India with one million rupees...hmmm I wonder what the exchange rate is....

Taito was/is only acting on orders from the sly pig Voceke..stall until I return, use any excuses available so that pensioners and the public are fooled. Taito, you can fool your pig Voceke but you cannot fool a retiree. Where's your conscience Taito? Do you ever stop and ask yourself, how are these people surviving?

Rabuka did NBF 420 million remember so franko will do 840 million from fnpf ask the girls at Delainabua that was the plan. Rabuka (God is with us) GCC and Methodist haleluya. Satan is with Franco so go vutulaki MF

fnpf board should resign now.where is ajit kodakoda the crook .time for fijian to fight the regime before all money spend to pay the army idiots and govt loans.fnpf is f up .i said it 2 years ago.nbf rabuka f upfnpf f up by bai.

NO MONEY at FNPF. It is worrying, we are at the beck and call of very stupid people including FNPF, RBF and Ministry of Finance and Planning. They are very careless with our hard earned pensioners funds and should be taken to task. I also heard that Ministry of Planning have not prepared cash flow statements for a very long time and secondly, RBF does not know how to utilise money sitting underneath it. People are all too STUPID.

Can LQ and MPChodo Coalition [SDL/FLP] declare your coalition stance on ALTA / NLTA Both you idiots should note that not a single poor farmer family has been inhumanly evicted, dispossessed and left on the roadside since 2006. If you relook at the newspapers from 2000 / 2006 heartless evictions were happening on a daily basis.Is this not good enough reason for us to support Bainimarama and vote for his party in the next elections??? We have long been told that democracy is a foreign flower and how true..

c4.5 is it really necessary to throw up picture of Mahendra Chodory every week on your website? Someone could have thought he owns the website or you're doing publicity work for this crook? It makes me sick justto look at this crook picture daily in your website, its time to shut these bastard out and focused our attention on New Leaders.

If we haven't been as diligent as we should be in making public statements about the status of FNPF payments, I'm sorry, but it is mainly because we have all been working flat-out to update the system and to deal with various technical and other glitches.

It hasn't helped that the system has crashed a few times. This means that we now need to compare our data records with earlier records because some records have changed or are missing. It is an onerous and time-consuming task, but I'm sure you will understand that we need to reconcile our records to make sure everyone gets paid who is supposed to get paid.

That brings up another matter. Another part of the validation process is to redefine the list of qualified pensioners, in order to select out all of those disqualified by their political activism against the government of the day.

Nearly all validated pensioners have been paid. Those still awaiting payment may still require validation or else have already been selected out. If you belong in the latter category, you should receive official notification of your loss of status soon after the line minister returns from his visit to India. We need his confirmation first.

Please do not petition for checks before then. You would only be wasting your time and ours.

We are also very busy with putting the finishing touches on the PM's new National Provident Scheme, a separate mandatory superannuation fund that will soon be launched under the direct control of the Prime Minister. This will backstop the FNPF with additional monies that will be invested in infrastructure, with proceeds earmarked to the Fijians who need and deserve them most, those in real need who have also confirmed their loyalty to the principles of the People's Charter.

While we regret the delays related to the FNPF, these were not all our doing, and thank you for your patience. But I also hope you now see that your government is hard at work. Expect more good things to follow!

@anon 5.02pm..OMG..Penny Moore is a known drug abuser..weed smoker..what is this country getting itself into..welcoming Gamblers for new casino..chineese who are well known for their shady deals and prostitution and now appointing a known pot head for constitutional review committee..the wrath of the Lord will surely come upon us soon..just wait and see.

Ok why don't we all meet at albert park on Wednesday morning at approximately 9am and we'll march up to the illegal Prime Minister office and demanded our money.If we don't get it we'll take something or somebody apart? Remember it's Wednesday morning at 9am and give it 30 minutes for everyone to get there so at 9:30amthe march start heading toward the illegal Prime Minister office!Those of you without balls or boobs stay out,cause this is the begining of the end for this regime!Chaudhery,Felix,Urai,Qarase,Beddoesand anyone whose pension has been screwed come and join the march.

please for chrissake! another FNPF dumbwit official trying to cover up the stuff-up. FNPF has made public statement to disburse money and that's it. Any possible glitches you should have figured out. What do you expect that the system will continue to work ok with the anticipated increase processing volume? Or did you expect that less people would have opted for withdrawal? Stop blogging and get on with your friggin job like we paid you to do, you idiot!!

If democracy is a foreign flower, then militarism is a foreign weed that needs to be pulled up at the root and destroyed before it propagates further. If democracy hasn't taken root in Fiji as it should, it is only because its seeds have fallen on barren minds and among the thorns, brambles and bainimarama.

"What passes through the mouth passes through the body, what procedeth from the mouth comes from the heart"

God made pot just as he made alcohol and nicotine and kava and poppies....

If we are to judge leaders by their choice of drugs then kava swilling ethno nationalist talatalas will come first bad guys, alcohol swilling brutilizers and coup makers come in second, nicotine comes in third as a straight arm killer.Weed, poor old weed the peace maker,alcohol the pace maker and kava the peace maker.We hate peace makers, thats why we killed Jesus and Ghandi and ML King.

I see they have taken bloggers idea for more women or a womens party for 2014! Jiko Luveni talking about finding best women to stand. Everything regime touches turns to crap. Let's hope they don't spoil this good idea.

If those not being paid are probably already targeted by the regime for the forfeiture of their pensions, why shouldn't they join the protest at Albert Park? What more have they got to lose? With a strong enough protest, maybe the regime will think twice before depriving honest workers of their life's savings!

We had a crook in Rabuka -Bank went bankrupt and subsequently had another crook in Chodry! So Frank carries on the Family tradition should we be suprised -not really but wat gets me is Mick Beddoes!God Almighty you would think someone who reached his level of expertise would think twice or ask someone about uttering a first class stupid comment! Using the unclaimed funds to pay the pensioner! There are rules Mick and you must know that it is known as good 'governance" For a former politician please shut up and go do some singing or play with yourself to just keep yourself busy just opening your mouth shows how dopy you are! What if a relative or immediate family memeber finds out ther is money there in the NPF they can claim-your brilliant idea just adds more stupidity to an already stupid course of action we seening right in front of us! Appears all you former politicians have run out of both good and bad ideas what you now suggest amounts not short of what Fijians call "ulu lala" even "ulu kau' sound good!

Anonymous a 12:49 How true-"What passes through the mouth passes through the body, what procedeth from the mouth comes from the heart"I just have to add " what pass thru the guts is just plain SHIT! In grand Pas lingo-'DA"! With some its just a simple case of "shit also coming from their mouth" and they just can't help themselves so i won't balme the heart all the time. Good one!

its like qarase was clean hope you never forgot the agricultural scam. all same. rabuka 420m from nbf bank gone 4 good, choodry 2m in bank and job 4 son, qarase famous agricultural scam now comes fransico murder and total right off of fnpf nothing left finitho. all because of the ladies at delainabua. we have to ask do we need them. close the camp and all the budget money to go to the people who lost their fnpf. fiji pinitho hail chaina our next rulers and ahkoy the new leader.very soon we will have a chinese council of thiefs in the new building in nasova lol

I love the way pro-regime bloggers have joined in saying “pls don’t worry, all is well”, and not the usual all-out attack on critics as ‘losers’ or racist supporters of Qarase government.

The regime knows that this issue is different. People who had no love for the Qarase Government and might have been willing to give Bainimarama a go are worried, seriously worried. If the regime loses these people they have NO support.

And it’s not just the people trying to collect their money who are worried. It’s all the people with their life savings invested in the fnpf, who don’t yet qualify to take their money out. They wonder if they’ll ever see their money.

The fnpf said that they’re paying out $100 million, so that means there’s a lot of lump sums. When offered another choice of a pension or a lump sum, people who chose pensions the first time have changed to a lump sum because they no longer trust the fnpf to be able to pay their pension.

The biggest worry is the lack of full information on the state of the funds of the fnpf. The MYFNPF website has a summary of funds but nowhere near as much information as they published in the past. Until there is full disclosure of all information we should assume the worst.

Let’s hope that enough of the rfmf, officers and men, come to the same conclusion and march on Bainimarama’s office, demanding answers.

I wonder where Penny moore scores from?? Viti Bou is pretty dry @ the moment.. But we very much like the idea of a lady rasta in the constitutional forum - our new constitution will be solid as a stoned.

Yeh.. I even forgot to ask - any updates on the FNPF glitchs - internal and external???

But back to important issues - It would be nice if Penny Moore can assist in enshrining in the Constitution our unhindered rights to grow and use some good quality weed and the surplus we can export to Armstadam.. where it would be as much appreciated. Sugar cane is not bringing in much dough now and weed is very lucrative indeeeed!

GO Penny Moore - GO PM GO!! We are all for you! GO for being the next PM!!!

And for your info; Yash Ghai is a smoker who never inhaled [too old to inhale now] Professor Non Done could not have written anything without stoned inspiration!

No Glitch@10:13PM...Buddy did you just got out of bed? What the frieken hell wrong with you man...No body,i say again,No body has got the money they frieken promised? Is that clear enough? If you want to help come to the Albert Park and be there before 9:00am,we'll from the park and well march straight to the illegal PM office.If the assole is still in India than well deliver something to the Chief Justice either someone is going to receive something from us?Like i've said if you don't have balls or boobs get out of the way?If solidiers or police wants to stop us go aheadmake our day?We will prevail and you will deliver this money to usit will be liberty or it will be death????

Allow me to clarify the point I was making with regards to the FNPF issue. 4.5 extracted only a couple of lines from what I issued which was

STATEMENT: I called on FNPF CEO to stop lying to pensioners and start telling the truth about why the FNPF can’t pay them their money as promised and take responsibility for the disgraceful handling of their payments and resign I said it is now Tuesday morning and Monday was the 3rd or 4th payout deadline given by the CEO that has come and gone and pensioners have still not received their money as promised and therefore it can no longer be just about a computer ‘glitch’ which they appear unable to fix or fatigue from workers pulling 24 hours shifts; because today marks the 3red promised deadline they have failed to meet. So what is the real problem? What is the Truth? The people have a right to know!

I said if its cash flow, then the FNPF should use the $650 million plus unclaimed members fund that it has sitting in its accounts? Or has it already been transferred out?

I said these funds belong to the pensioners, not the government, not the Board and certainly not the incompetent management, so the priority here should be to use the unclaimed funds to facilitate the immediate pay out of all the pensioners and not manufacture excuses because of cash flow problems to allow a gradual payout to pensioners which is causing them and their families great stress and anxiety.

The balance of these unclaimed $650 million plus funds must not be used to prop up an unelected or even elected government as it is money belonging to pensioners of the FNPF so it should be either invested to benefit members or shared equally among all pensioners of the FNPF past and present' END OF STATEMENT

The way in which the reforms at FNPF were pushed through by decrees should make it clear to everyone that following established acts and legislation is not something the Regime has practiced.

The priority has to be the pensioners and their understandable reliance on the promised dates by which their payout would occur and when that did not occur, the lack of and infrequent updates as to the progress of their promised payments is what has caused this problem.

Those in charge must accept responsibility for what has happened and while the anonymous contributors might enjoy attacking me for expressing my viewpoint on the matter,their emotional outbursts will not alter the truth which is that the FNPF have screwed this transaction up BIG TIME!

Fiji Sun is useless. Where is their in depth report on the FNPF saga. What has happened to investigative reporting? Have they been paid or not? I will be confronting Lomas in due course as I do not believe he understands democracy.

Quote from VB. "The hostile or indifferent reaction of most ordinary Fijians has apparently infuriated the military regime. On 08 September 2008, Bainimarama railed against those criticising the Charter and threatened that elections would be cancelled and the military would rule for a further 20 years unless it was approved.

The Central Intelligence Agency says that out of 172 countries, Fiji is ranked 76th in terms of its defence spending and GDP.

Therefore in comparison with its GDP, Fiji's military budget is bigger than 96 countries including New Zealand, Italy, Thailand, Germany and Canada.

Can Frank confirm that he still stands by his statement in 2007 that no persons, including him, serving, or have served in his cabinet military regime will run in the much touted Fiji’s 2014 general election?

The truth comes out. Anit, Santa Maharaj,and Nick Naidu are in bed with Mick Beddoes, Qarese, and Chaudhry. What is this world coming to???

No wonder Fiji First were sending unsigned submissions. They were doomed before they started.

Was this Santa fellow not Chadhry's left or right ball at one time? What happened Maharaj, did Chaudhry not share his loot with you? Is that why you made your own way to Girmit Center and did your own thing there. Is that why the money is not accounted for? All you DAAKUS are same.

I still have not received my money as of 27.04.12. It may be due to glitches or new criteria or no money or all of them. I am sick of this government and its lies, but I will not turn into a thief just to survive.God is faithful and He will help me.God Bless Fiji.

It seems that my email address has caused some of the anonymous regime supporters a bit of grief? and they have assumed that I am with a group with a similar name out of New Zealand.

Actually the original Fiji First Group was established after the 2001 coup. I was its Chairperson and we coordinated the opposition to the Regime back then under the Fiji First banner.

So my use of Fiji First 2014 as an email address for political correspondence purely coincidental and has nothing to do with Mr Naidu or his NZ organization.

But having clarified that, as far as I am concerned, any group or individual that opposes 'military intervention' as a means by which FIJI should alter its political direction and anyone individually or as a group who aspires to have full democratic governance restored should be fully supported by all law abiding citizens of Fiji.

I sympathize with the pensioners, but the truth is, FNPF is broke, there's no money to pay these pensioners. These glitches or whatever shit they spin, are all stalling tactics. The money has been spent on Voceke's bribes by way of developments and to service the loans to the Chinese.